COVID-19: On 28 March 2020 the Business Secretary announced further new far-reaching measures to help businesses combat the financial impact of COVID-19. What it the likely impact of the suspension of wrongful trading provisions and a moratorium for businesses in restructuring on your business?
Representatives of a lender on a board will not automatically impose directors' duties on the lender, but they may apply where a director's specific instructions have led directly to a breach of fiduciary duty. The High Court recently explored this issue in an appeal in the case of Standish v Royal Bank of Scotland plc.(1)
Facts
In this chapter of our Annual Insurance Review 2020, we look at the main developments in 2019 and expected issues in 2020 for restructuring and insolvency.
Key developments in 2019
In one of the leading insurance insolvency and restructuring cases of 2019, Ballantyne Re, plc (Ballantyne) used an Irish scheme of arrangement to restructure its reinsurance obligations and outstanding indebtedness (the Scheme).
The high street is experiencing a rash of administrations, but could regulators fix the mess?
In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway neatly summed up how bankruptcy happens. It occurs two ways: “Gradually. Then suddenly.” The British retail landscape has seen a flurry of such calamities. Thomas Cook, House of Fraser, L.K.Bennett, Debenhams, Links of London, Goals Soccer Centres, Mothercare and Jack Wills all struggled for periods before collapsing into various forms of administration.
Retentions have been a common feature in the construction industry for over 100 years, yet over the past two years there has been a growing shift in the construction industry’s views on retentions and whether reform of retention as we know it is required. Adele Parsons discusses these recent developments further.
[2019] EWHC 2651 (TCC)
Before ICC Judge Barber In the Insolvency and Companies List
The facts
In But Ka Chon v Interactive Brokers LLC [2019] HKCA 873, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's decision to reject an application to set aside a statutory demand. The appellant had argued (among other things) that an arbitration clause in his agreement with the respondent required their dispute to be referred to arbitration.